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Reining Horse death caused by trainer

For the SECOND time, a San Diego reining trainer has caused the death of a horse he had in training; this time it was the barn owner's own horse. Both times he tied a horse's head down tight to the saddle & the horse(s) flipped. First one died pretty much instantly with a broken neck, this one broke her neck but a vet had to put her down. Humane Society has a file on him & have been keeping involved from the first incident. He's been kicked off the property where he was training & I think he'll have trouble finding somewhere to go around here. Googling him I discovered he had also trained in New York & North Carolina.

We have 5 NRHA Reining Shows here over the spring/summer. Two shows ago a boarder said she saw blood on the horse's mouth & he was throwing dirt on it to cover it up - no proof of that, unfortunately. The last show he got a no score when the judge found a bloody spur mark. Humane Society sent an officer to one of the shows (forget which one) to look over his horses & he was complaining they were persecuting him.

And yes, I'm outing him. His name is Mark Arballo. His girlfriend's name (she trains with him) is Patrice Hohl. He was training out of River Valley Ranch in San Diego, dba Arballo Reining Horses. Frankly, I don't understand why he still had clients after the first incident or why the ranch didn't kick him out after the first death, but everyone may have considered it a freak accident.

Well accidents happen but consistent issues are another thing. Flipping over because a trainer doesn't want to take the time. My mare flipped over with a well known dressage trainer, I never went back.

Susan was that at the show?? Didn't see anything in the news/paper, perhaps they would be interested. Also, I know people hear this stuff because trainers talk to each other, but does something like this get reported to NRHA ? or no because it wasn't during a recognized show? I totally thought you were gonna name a different person.. also fond of tying heads here and there.

Who cares? He put two horses in a poaition where they felt like they had to flip themselves to get away.

i've known one trainer who had two horses had to be PTS after cross-tie incidents in which both horses cartwheeled over and had catastrophic injuries resulting. is she abusive and should her training license be revoked? no.

horses when tied can and will panic, regardless of the handler. my point is in a lot of reining cultures, a tie-down is the norm for training. certainly not ALL reining trainers endorse or use this aide, but it is still very common and prevalent and, to be fair, i am not surprised to hear of resulting deaths.

tragic and unavoidable yes, but the point is this isn't the only trainer in reining who believes in such training methods.

OP correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think this is a tie-down accident.

As I understand it, and I've seen it done by western people, the horse was tied from on side; a rein going from the bit and tied to either the horn or the girth ring, AND then left to its own the nose almost touching its side. They do one side for X minutes then the same amount of time tied to the other side.

Bloody spur mark was at the show - Judge was Renee Baker. He was marked for a no score for the spur mark. He was incensed and was loudly proclaiming to anyone who would listen that he was going to file a complaint with NRHA. The class wasn't a NRHA class (we run Jackpot & ribbons only classes that are not NRHA also), but he wanted that championship buckle - he got reserve. Haven, I can think of a couple others who would qualify for tying a horse's head around, too, unfortunately.

He would come in & expect people to move their trailers so he could put his where he wanted - one time he even tried to park & unload right in the middle of the driveway. There was plenty of parking available, but he wanted to be closer to the entry booth. Even the ranch owner keeps her dog on a leash, but we had to constantly remind him all dogs had to be leashed - even his. Crap like that. Neither he or Patrice have any manners in the warmup arena, sliding or spinning right into other horses and expecting all others to get the hell out of the way.

Bluey, were you looking at the website from when he was in NC? Or here in San Diego? His Facebook page is gone, although somebody posted a warning about him on the local Craigslist & one of the other reining trainers local here posted on Facebook about the incident.

We had a reining trainer here for a while who would pick out expensive made horses for his clients & then we'd watch as the horses lost their training since he couldn't keep them tuned & was pretty harsh on them sometimes. There used to be a horse dealer who'd show up every year or so with a trailer load of horses he didn't sell in the PNW & he knew immediately who he was. Apparently he'd started out training in either Oregon or Washington & as owners got clued in, he'd pull up stakes & move south, eventually ending up here. Last we heard, he's selling mattresses.

The barn isn't Arballo's. The owners have several trainers there and not all boarders are reiners - there are also dressage horses & hunters as well as just trail riders. People come & go at different times & my guess is he is pretty careful what he does when there are people there. I know for a fact that the owner had told him in no uncertain terms he was never to tie her horse around; he simply did it when she wasn't home. The place (and this horse) is owned by a lady who had been an exhibitor here even before we went NRHA & she was able some years ago to build a top-notch facility. The ranch pictures are hers, not his. He lost some clients before the last show; apparently he's lost more.

Humane Society has been called on him more than once; he just shrugs & says they're "picking" on him & laughs it off. The horse owner is pressing charges. This was a mare she just purchased and came to her well-trained.

I have seen this Supposed training method over the years by so called Western trainers!
That's training? It's a pathetic short cut that does not give real results, and often ends in an incident such as this. Yes I have seen it first hand. The similar tying the horses head to the side of the saddle to make him bend!

"you can only ride the drama llama so hard before it decides to spit in your face." Caffeinated.

I have seen this Supposed training method over the years by so called Western trainers!
That's training? It's a pathetic short cut that does not give real results, and often ends in an incident such as this. Yes I have seen it first hand. The similar tying the horses head to the side of the saddle to make him bend!

Anatomy 101: when you fatigue a muscle it contracts!!!! Forcing the horse into a certain position in this way will cause the muscles to CONTRACT. It does not cause them to stretch because muscles can't stretch, the can only relax!!

When I first came to the SW, they did show me how they turned the head back and tied the horse "to soak".
It is standard practice here for most everyone.

Never made sense to me, so I politely declined to do so and did show them how they could do the same, get the horse soft to hand, without needing to do so.
Guess I was young and opinionated and lucky the BO gave me some leeway, didn't just fire me for not doing what I was told.

I just won't do something that doesn't make any sense to me.
I have to say, practically everyone I know does that starting colts still today.

I have known horses hurt badly by fighting when tied like that and left in the round pen or stall tied like that for 30 minutes.
Then when the trainer comes back, wondering "how did he get hurt?"
Since they get by with many horses, they think it is rare the horse that gets hurt.
Still, it doesn't make sense that tying a horse back, to the tail or stirrup or horn or cinch and leaving it there does any but end up with a sore colt.

I think there must be more to this story than just tying a horse back, is the point I am trying to make.

If he is an AQHA or NRHA exhibitor, has someone reported him?
They generally are suspended from those association if they are found to have been abusing horses in any way.

Anatomy 101: when you fatigue a muscle it contracts!!!! Forcing the horse into a certain position in this way will cause the muscles to CONTRACT. It does not cause them to stretch because muscles can't stretch, the can only relax!!

This is abuse in my book!!

EXACTLY right! I quit a barn managers position after finding a young QH gelding tied up that way all alone in his stall with no one on the grounds.
Insane! I would like to tie someone that way and see if they are not crippled after that ordeal.

"you can only ride the drama llama so hard before it decides to spit in your face." Caffeinated.

I'm in North Texas...thousands of QHs in the area. About 10 years ago I was at a vet clinic and there was a young horse there (3 or 4) with a horrid neck deformity. Reining trainer had tied head to girth, then tied to wall and gone to lunch for an hour. Came back and horse had flipped, ruptured multiple tendons and muscles.

Survival was unsure when I saw it, but it could not lift it's head/neck to parallel to the ground.

Unfortunately, due to all the 2 and 3 y.o. futurities in the various western disciplines, we see lots of horses around here who were pushed too hard and are permanently lame and done by 4 or 5. And don't even get me started on the HYPP halter horses. ugh.